


(you are my) lucky star

by verity



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-27
Updated: 2010-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verity/pseuds/verity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dawn and Tara rent a movie. Set in between S5 and S6.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(you are my) lucky star

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Snowpuppies for Round 40 of femslash_minis. She requested Dawn/Tara, cotton candy, a hug, and a pleasant smell.

At Blockbuster, Dawn always gets cotton candy, a little plastic bag full of baby blue and pink fluff. Tara gets whatever movie Dawn wants to watch, no questions asked, but sometimes Dawn pretends she doesn't care and lets Tara pick.

"I used to watch this with my mom," Tara says, fingers brushing across _Singin' in the Rain_.

"I've never seen it," Dawn lies. (Or maybe it's the truth - she didn't exist then - but what matters, to Dawn, is the intent.)

Tara's hand hesitates over the movie. "Do you think...?"

"Sure," Dawn says. "Let's."

\- - - - -

Dawn's fingers get sticky and the artifical dye stains them while she unspools the cotton candy, bit by bit. Buffy used to make fun of her for getting the stuff in the bag, but the colors in the real thing are just as fake and it's every bit as sweet.

Now she licks her lips, where the sugar crystallizes. On screen, Don Lockwood is singing to Kathy Selden on a vacant soundstage; Kathy's sleeves flutter in the simulated breeze. When Dawn turns her head slightly, she can see the dampness on Tara's cheeks gleaming in the flickering light of the television set.

Dawn is no one's lucky star.

She licks her fingers, one by one, and waits to feel something.

\- - - - -

When they watch movies, Dawn always ends up snuggling next to Tara on the couch. Often she falls asleep, head pillowed on Tara's shoulder; Tara smells like sage and rosemary, with something musky underneath. Sometimes Willow comes in and joins them, but more and more these days she's spending time in the room she shares with Tara or the Magic Box, combing through enormous stacks of books.

Dawn knows that there's stuff her sisters' friends don't tell her, won't tell her, things not even Spike knows. Their speech has become stilted, awkward around her; an uncomfortable silence falls whenever she enters a room. She never asks Tara what it is they're working on, because she doesn't want Tara to lie.

\- - - - -

Dawn doesn't fall asleep this time, but she does tilt her head against Tara's shoulder. Tara kisses the top of her head, strokes her hair. Tara is the only person Dawn knows who is like her, whose only family is the one who chose her.

"Thanks for watching this with me," Tara says now, as the credits roll. She wraps Dawn in a hug, and for a moment she is Dawn's entire world: solid and real and alive. "It means a lot."

Dawn draws back, grins sheepishly. "I know. And it was really good."

Tara smiles, then, and for a moment the whole world is her smile. "I love you, sweetie." She presses a button on the remote, and for a moment the living room is dark.

Dawn hugs her again in that darkness, and tells her, "Me too." Even if what she means isn't quite the same thing.


End file.
